The 2nd and 3rd year of high school, we had about 3 hours a week of computer science. Basically we were given tasks that we could solve in either Pascal or C (which all the cool kids preferred). The mandatory assignments were quite basic, but we were allowed to do our own projects in the time we had left after doing the mandatory stuff. So a couple of us made a multiplayer 2d space shooter, quite a fun project.

All in all it was my favorite class. But I did go the science/electro program, '99 graduate in Sweden.

For everyday apparel, I would go with the same level of formality as the other people of your (new) level in the company.

If you are meeting with customers, it's all about knowing them. Don't come in an IBM style blacksuit-whiteshirt-tie clothes if you are meeting with jeans and t-shirt guys.

And don't listen to people saying "You must wear slacks and a shirt" or any such idiocy. It always depends on the local culture. I work at a gaming studio at the moment, and people at all levels are just going with the style they are comfortable in. Studio head is consistently jeans+t-shirt. Before that, online poker where it was uniformly jeans/khakis/slacks + polo/shirt across the whole company. Before that, management consultancy - even the drones were suit-and-tie.

And when it comes to the notion of "dress above your position so people think of you as a boss". My personal (but untested belief) is that dress so you look good, while not going below the expected formality is the optimal strategy.

Considering the advances we are making in robotics, what is the justification for having humans in the settlement already in "Phase 1"?

It adds a huge overhead to the project; not only in the obvious forms such as food, water, air, radiation protection, space suits, which are all heavy and extremely costly to ship to Mars. But also in the form of safety standards (equipment failure on Mars will likely mean the death of the person operating it). And it also leads to the problem of biosphere contamination.

I think it is very obvious that the scientific ROI is vastly higher for an installation that is strictly electricity driven. Achieving ore extraction and flexible equipment manufacturing so that the base can both replenish itself and expand seems both more economically rational and technologically feasible. And once that is in place, we can get a nice little settlement ready and pre-built for when the first humans arrive.

Lolcats, schrödinger's zombiecats, misfortune-bringers of doom, spreading of mind controlling suicide parasites.. I fear cats more than any quoran toting goofball out there.
It is time for someone to do something.

pyzondar writes: The listed software company, Global Gaming Factory X, has announced that they will acquire The Pirate Bay and its domains in a 60MSEK (7.5MUSD) deal. However, the press statement also states that the deal will only go through "if GGF and its Board of Directors can use the asset in a legal and appropriate way."
The consideration is split in 30MSEK worth of shares, and 30MSEK worth of cash.